{"id":5881,"date":"2011-06-07T09:54:06","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T16:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=5881"},"modified":"2011-06-07T09:54:06","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T16:54:06","slug":"a-middle-class-shrug-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/07\/a-middle-class-shrug-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"A middle-class shrug, II"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a follow-up to last week’s “Middle-Class Shrug”<\/a> blog. <\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

We hear about economic “pressure on the middle class.” Business media tell us the middle class is being squeezed. Popular media try to break our hearts with profiles of couples who have fallen out of the middle class and into desperation. <\/p>\n

But the picture they paint is incomplete and distorted. The “squeezed” mostly remain an abstraction. The “fallen” families beloved of the media are, as often as not, a misrepresentation; they’re usually folk who made dumb decisions (mostly by buying houses they couldn’t afford at prices they should have questioned) and are now living with the consequences. <\/p>\n

We don’t see the individuals of the middle class who’ve done everything right and lived responsibly. Nobody profiles the guy who kept his job, worked smart, bought a home he could afford, saw the financial collapse coming, budgeted carefully, cut expenses as needed — and is now getting completely screwed anyhow. This guy (or woman or family) isn’t getting hurt by some no-fault bad economy, but by an ever-tightening web of regulation, enforcement, hidden inflation, prejudice, and deliberate raping of resources by those above and below.<\/p>\n

We don’t see profiles of people who are being used up precisely because of their middle-class virtues<\/i>. But they’re out there. Judging by the comments on the first “shrug” post, plenty of them are reading this blog.<\/p>\n

You know, and I know, that it’s disastrous to raid the middle-class to this point of stress, let alone to potential extinction. When the prosperous, responsible middle is withered beyond recognition, all you’ve got left is a kleptocracy with nobody left to steal from. Then the poor suffer because there’s nobody to provide real jobs or pay taxes to support them. The honest rich suffer because the market for their wares is reduced. And the predatory rich — those who’ve used political pull — move elsewhere in search of prey. Finding no freshly prosperous prey, they eventually become like jackals seeking corpses to gnaw.<\/p>\n

We can ask how stupid these human predators must be to decimate the middle-class. But pity them; the predatory rich in government and government-connected businesses miscalculated. They thought they could feast forever. <\/p>\n

Now millions of the middle class are struggling, angry but uncomprehending. They still plan to send their kids to colleges in hopes of a “betterment” that’s now only a costly fraud. They still hope “things will turn around,” not comprehending that the big dream is gone for good. They still support “their” government (however reluctantly) believing there’s no other option. They still hope against hope that the next stimulus or the next round of tax-and-loan-paid support for favored businesses will “put the country back on track.”<\/p>\n

They still don’t have a clue about what’s really happened. The notion of shrugging would never occur to them (and as Matt noted in the comment section on the original post, the weight of layoffs and outsourcing, families to raise, elderly parents to care for, medical bills to pay, and so on is so heavy most couldn’t shrug it off even if they understood the concept).<\/p>\n

But there’s a minority out there … the canaries in Western civilization’s big, dark coal mine … who are starting to say no. No to bearing imposed burdens. No to being sitting ducks for every new tax or regulation. No to maintaining a lifestyle that’s become largely an illusion. No to a belief system that has so blatantly failed them.<\/p>\n

I’ve been watching one such person for years. His is no sudden, dramatic Atlas<\/i> style shrug, but an evolution. He started adulthood as a super-talented go-getter (achieving multiple degrees from one of the world’s top schools). He became an entrepreneur and eventually a globe-hopping consultant, a noted expert in his field. Though never rich, he was one of those classic, solid upper-middle guys who created jobs for smart, able people and who advised other businesses. He built his retirement plan. He had his city place and his country place. He was probably too busy to enjoy his life, but he did all those right things<\/i> for success.<\/p>\n

He was awake and aware long before the crash of 2008. But I think that crash signaled him that his time had come. Here’s one of his big revelations, post-crash:<\/p>\n

My firm’s revenues are one-fourth of what they were in 2008, and my personal income is similarly reduced. But my tax bill this year was one tenth of what is was in 2008. That’s progressive taxation for you! So I’m faced with the choice of doing the long days and weekends to build the business up, only to see most of the additional money stolen and used to kill, maim, and torture innocent men, women, and children all over the world, or simply coasting along, paying the bills but not saving so much as I used to. I’m also not writing year-end checks to the various governments that would buy a decent house in almost any place in the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sure, he knew all about marginal tax rates and woefully named “progressive” taxation before the crash. But living it, and feeling responsible for its consequences, is a different thing.<\/p>\n

Now he’s wondering how long it will be before the federal government confiscates everbody’s private retirement funds by forcing them to invest in worthless government paper. And he’s taken action:<\/p>\n

\nI liquidated most but not all of my IRA. … It hurt a bit to do so; I had spent the last 10 years making carefully researched investments in smallish companies, mostly in the commodities and natural resources sector. …<\/p>\n

I had to wipe out most of those investments, and I didn’t have the luxury of timing the sales. So while I did very well, including two \u201cten baggers,\u201d (you put in one bag, you take out ten bags) it felt like kicking down my own sand castle. …<\/p>\n

I took all the money, deposited it in a new LLC’s bank account, and promptly wired nearly all of it back out. I bought a bunch of silver and gold. So what used to be capital invested in producing goods and services for people who want them now sits in a safe deposit box, where it benefits no one but me.<\/p>\n

I did this primarily because it’s rather obvious that they will be coming for the private pension assets sooner than later. They did it in Argentina, they just did it in Ireland. <\/p>\n

I am under no illusion that I have foiled them, but I have bought some time. There is now a step between the midnight passage of the law (or stroke of the pen, law of the land change in policy\/regulations\/interpretation) and them getting the money from me. Not so with bank or brokerage accounts, which they can freeze, re-allocate, tax, confiscate, or pretty much anything else they want with a few keystrokes. With the metal they have to find it, or I have to go get it first, then sell it, to pay their tax or whatever they decide to call this particular round of theft. I may have only a few days, but I will have more time than people with their money stored as bits on some computer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So his shrug continues and in the classic (if slower) way — by removing capital and efforts from productive businesses and turning inward.<\/p>\n

My friend is still an entrepreneur, but I wonder for how long. There was a time that his sort of very smart go-getter would rarely ever have quit. Even now he’s reluctant. But he’s headed in that direction in a way that looks inexorable — and doing so for reasons that plenty of others might quietly follow:<\/p>\n

So perhaps I’ll explore more outlaw things to do, or maybe I’ll just contemplate, read, think, try to rejuvenate. I really don’t know at this point. But I do know that I’m not the only one. I suspect there are 10 or 100 small fry like me for every Jerry Della Femina that gets MSM write-ups.<\/p>\n

I suspect this because I didn’t do this out of any principle or righteous anger. Rich men with no need to continue to work can afford those luxuries. I have principles and lots of anger, but they weren’t enough to get me to act, to convince me to tear down my precious investment portfolio and spend considerable time and money on another plan. I did it to protect myself, to prepare for what is coming. It seems that is a more powerful and effective motivation for me, and I don’t think I’m all that unusual in that respect. So while I’m shrugging, mostly I’m hunkering down, prepping and protecting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a follow-up to last week’s “Middle-Class Shrug” blog. —– We hear about economic “pressure on the middle class.” Business media tell us the middle class is being squeezed. Popular media try to break our hearts with profiles of couples who have fallen out of the middle class and into desperation. But the picture they paint is incomplete and distorted. The “squeezed” mostly remain an abstraction. The “fallen” families beloved of the media are, as often as not, a misrepresentation; they’re usually folk who made dumb decisions (mostly by buying houses they couldn’t afford at prices they should have…<\/p>\n

Continue readingA middle-class shrug, II<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20,26,27,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-spirit","category-money","category-practical-freedom","category-preparedness","category-privacy-and-self-ownership","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}